Working Alliance and Stages of Change for Employment: The Intermediary Role of Autonomous Motivation, Outcome Expectancy and Vocational Rehabilitation Engagement

Abstract

Purpose Working alliance is one of the most important common factors for successful counseling/psychotherapy outcomes. Based on the empirical literature about working alliance, it seems that self-determination and self-efficacy theory (SDT/SET) can potentially be used as a motivational model to explain the relationship between working alliance and vocational rehabilitation (VR) outcomes. The purpose of this study is to evaluate three primary SDT/SET constructs, autonomous motivation, expectancy and engagement, as mediators for the relationship between working alliance and stages of change (SOC) for employment. Methods A serial multiple mediation analysis (SMMA) was computed to evaluate autonomy, outcome expectancy, and VR engagement as mediators of the relationship between working alliance and SOC for employment in a sample of 277 people with chronic illness and disability (CID) receiving services from state VR agencies in the United States. Results The SMMA results indicated that working alliance was positively associated with SOC for employment (total effect), while the direct effect between working alliance and SOC for employment was not significant after controlling for the effects of the mediators, indicating significant mediation effects. The mediation effects were estimates of the indirect effects for working alliance on SOC for employment through (a) autonomous motivation, (b) outcome expectancy, (c) VR engagement, and (d) autonomous motivation, outcome expectancy and VR engagement together. Conclusions The results indicated that a strong working alliance has the benefit of helping consumers develop autonomous motivation to work and increasing their vocational outcome expectancy and engagement in VR services, leading to employment.

The effectiveness of role autonomy in influencing job pursuit intentions of customer‐oriented frontline job seekers

“…A multilayered construct, in a work context, autonomy can be derived from three sources, autonomy may be firm‐induced (i.e., role or objective autonomy), individually inherent (i.e., subjective autonomy), and customer‐induced (Hennig‐Thurau, 2004). This current research concentrates explicitly on role autonomy, which is considered to be the level of autonomy integral to the specific job role (Iwanaga et al, 2019).…”

“…In this current work, we specifically focus on role autonomy or objective autonomy this is considered to be the level of autonomy integral to the specific job role (Hennig‐Thurau, 2004; Iwanaga et al, 2019).…”

Transition Engagement of African American Youth With Disabilities: A Serial Mediation Model

“…An integrated model based on these two theories has recently been supported in the literature to explain engagement in VR services and motivation to work among adults with disabilities (Iwanaga et al, 2018;Tansey et al, 2017). In addition to supporting the connection between self-efficacy and outcome expectancy, the integrated model conceptualizes self-efficacy and competency as a unitary construct and posits a direct effect of the selfdetermination theory constructs on outcome expectancies and ultimately engagement.…”

“…Importantly, the construct working alliance has been used as a proxy for the selfdetermination theory construct relatedness in these studies applying the integrated selfdetermination/self-efficacy model to understand VR service engagement (Iwanaga et al, 2018;Tansey et al, 2017). According to the authors, they preferred to use working alliance as a relatedness variable because it is a modifiable variable and in-service training, such as motivational interviewing, can be provided to counselors, teachers, and transition specialists to increase their working alliance skills.…”

“…According to the authors, they preferred to use working alliance as a relatedness variable because it is a modifiable variable and in-service training, such as motivational interviewing, can be provided to counselors, teachers, and transition specialists to increase their working alliance skills. Findings from these studies indicate that working alliance helps to increase the self-determination and self-efficacy of adults with disabilities, leading to higher motivation and preparedness to engage in VR services (Dutta et al, 2017;Iwanaga et al, 2018;Tansey et al, 2017). The concept of working alliance has received much attention in the psychotherapy and counseling literature and has also been applied in the special education and VR fields (Test, Fowler, Kohler, & Kortering, 2016).…”